A Change of Pace

During our schools’ winter vacation time, we had the opportunity to work at the Metropolitan Office of Education’s Winter English Camp, which took place in nearby Busan. We had heard beforehand that most native teachers do not like these camps, but we rather enjoyed it. And, when we found out that we were getting paid extra for teaching there, we really enjoyed it!

We were picked up early at Griffin’s school and taken to our new home for the next three weeks, Young San University. We checked into our dorm room and were a little disheartened to learn that it was on the top floor of a 6 story walk-up. We then went down to the classrooms and interviewed students in order to aid in their level placement. From there we were ushered to orientation, given our teaching materials and then headed off to begin teaching. That’s right, we received our teaching materials about one hour before our first class. Fortunately, we were also assigned a teacher’s assistant and given small class sizes. Having only 16 students was a wonderful change from our usual 36.

The days were pretty grueling, and we found that it’s not easy to work 12 hour shifts everyday. The schedule was confusing and often changed on a moment’s notice. We fell into bed every night completely exhausted.

On the other hand, we were able to really get to know our students. It was so fun to play games with them and get to interact with them on a daily basis. We really miss our camp students!

Here are some highlights from camp:

Up early, bus is late, check in… 6th floor?, freezing rain, no heat in the hallways, octopus for lunch, fried fish for breakfast, 7-eleven, off campus for MEXICAN food!, hit up Costco, play practice,12 hour days, field trip to Busan Aquarium, staying in Busan for the weekend, Monday’s coming, up early, students are back, more 12 hour days, playing outside? too cold, making grilled Ham and Cheese sandwiches with the campers, more play practice, field trip to BEXCO, watching Mr. Bubbles the Bubbleist, Home for the weekend, back to Busan, students arrive, more crazy classes, making Dduck Boki with the campers, more play practice, the end is near, closing ceremony, time for the plays!, Valerie’s class wins 2ND PLACE!, pack up and head home exhausted, booked a trip and heading to Hong Kong and Japan in 2 days. Crazy? Yes.